BAIE-COMEAU, Quebec – The game started with fanfare and the raising of a championship banner, and for the Drakkar of Baie-Comeau, it ended with fanfare as well.
Lewiston scored a goal with 49 seconds to play to tie the season-opening game at three, only to see the home team add another with just 32 seconds leftin the game, spoiling the Maineiacs’ comeback attempt on Friday night.
“It was a tight game,” said Maineiacs’ head coach Mario Durocher. “I think that the other team showed more than we did tonight, and I think they outplayed us.”
Nicolas Robillard notched his second goal of the night for the Drakkar, taking a feed from Alexandre Blais and slipping the puck between Lewiston goaltender Brandon Verge’s arm and his stick.
“We were skating harder in the third period than they were,” said Durocher. “We outshot them 16-6. Verge could probably have stopped that one better.”
The winning goal came 17 seconds after Gabriel balasescu tied the game with Verge on the bench for an extra attacker.
“Everyone just worked a bit harder with the 6-on-5,” said Durocher. “We put some good pressure on them and got some good chances.”
Lewiston claimed the lead, 2-1, after the first period on two nice goals by Alexandre Picard, but couldn’t hang on from there. The team travels overnight to Chicoutimi to battle the Sagueneens this afternoon. Chicoutimi lost in overtime to the Quebec Remparts on Friday night, 5-4.
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